CPJ concerned by irregularities in Ukraine's Gongadze case

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by
reports of irregularities in the decade-long investigation into the 2000 kidnapping
and murder of Internet journalist Georgy Gongadze. Particularly, CPJ is
disturbed by efforts to derail progress in the investigation and peg the
ultimate responsibility for the murder on a dead suspect, while other leads in
the case languish. Since assuming
office in March, you have publicly stated your commitment to press freedom in Ukraine. The
case of Georgy Gongadze is a litmus test for you and your administration, and
we urge you to ensure that none of the perpetrators of his kidnapping and
killing are allowed to walk free.

A two-year-long trial of three suspected accomplices in Gongadze's
murder ended in 2008 with convictions--a
significant step on the road to justice. The three men--all police officers--are currently
serving lengthy prison terms for having followed,abducted, and decapitated the journalist in September
2000. In July 2009,
a key suspect, Interior Ministry General Aleksei Pukach, was arrested in northeastern
Ukraine. Investigating authorities dubbed Pukach Gongadze's immediate killer. He
is accused oforganizing surveillance of the journalist and
strangling him.

Though this progress in the case has been welcome, the issue
of prosecuting the crime's masterminds has remained unaddressed. Prosecutors
have failed to investigate former and current high-ranking officials--including
former President Leonid Kuchma and then-head of presidential administration and
current Parliament Speaker Vladimir Litvin--who have long been suspected of being
involved in Gongadze's killing.

Kuchma and his aides have been plagued bysuspicions that they directly
commissioned the crime ever since audiotapes, secretly recorded by a
former presidential bodyguard, surfaced two months after Gongadze's
disappearance. On those recordings, Kuchma is allegedly heard instructing late
Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko to "drive out" Gongadze and
"give him to the Chechens," according to transcripts obtained by news
agencies. Both Kuchma and Litvin have denied involvement.

According to Valentina Telychenko, the lawyer for Gongadze's
widow, Myroslava, the tapes were analyzed by local and international experts, and
included in the files of the investigation. It remains unclear whether the
recordings will be permitted as evidence in court. They are said to carry the voices
of Kuchma, Litvin, and Kravchenko. (In 2005, Kravchenko
was found dead in his apartment just hours before his scheduled questioning
in the Gongadze case. Authorities said he had committed suicide but doubts
lingered as to how the minister had managed to shoot himself in the head twice.

In October, the local press
reported that Pukach's state-appointed defense attorney, Oleg Musiyenko, publicly
stated that his client had given testimony directly implicating Kuchma and
other officials in the murder. (Pukach's testimony has not been made public.)
Musiyenko was removed from the case the same month, allegedly on his client's
request, according to Ukrainian press reports.

Investigating authorities' actions since October have been questionable
and unexplained.

In early October, investigators barred Myroslava Gongadze's
lawyer, Telychenko, from accessing the case files and quietly downgraded their
charges against suspected killer Pukach. In late November, investigators announced
that they had completed their investigation, and prosecutors changed
the case's status from a contract killing to "a killing on verbal order"--two
separate articles in Ukraine's criminal code; the latter formulation carries a
milder penalty for the convicted, according to local news reports. Telychenko
told CPJ that by reclassifying the case, prosecutorseffectively downgraded it, shrinking the circle of those suspected
of masterminding the murder to a single individual--the dead Kravchenko.

Once the case was downgraded, prosecutors violated due
process by bypassing the plaintiff's side and handing the case files to the
suspected murderer, Pukach, for review. This violation of procedure prevented Myroslava
Gongadze and her lawyer from challenging the case in an informed and effective manner.
The plaintiffs have to this day not received access to the case files.
Nevertheless, they have filed appeals against the case's downgrading. On
January 31, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv denied the initial appeal; a
second appeal is still pending.

It is of
utmost concern to Gongadze's family, to CPJ, and all members of the Ukrainian
and international press freedom community, that the hard-earned progress in
this significant case is being destroyed. Our colleague Georgy Gongadze
deserves justice, and that includes holding every single culprit, regardless of
his rank or political standing, responsible before a court of law. The public--both
in Ukraine
and abroad--deserves to know the truth about what happened to him.

We urge
you to use the influence of your high office to ensure that no perpetrator in
this heinous crime walks free. By stopping short of prosecuting the
masterminds, Ukraine will allow impunity to prevail and backpedal on its
hard-earned press freedom gains since the Orange Revolution of 2004.